Why do some patients recover without ever showing symptoms of Covid-19 while others end up fighting for their lives on a ventilator or dying from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus?

Some local health care institutions think they can solve this riddle and, in doing so, create a simple blood test to predict how ill people will become if they are infected with the virus.

That’s the ambitious goal of a new clinical study launched by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and several partners.

Officials say the Western New York Immunogenomic Covid-19 Study could begin as soon as next week with blood sample collection from patients and could take as little as six months to complete.

The Roswell Park study will launch with a $150,000 donation from the 11-Day Power Play hockey tournament charity. The cancer center is seeking additional donations to further defray the $1 million estimated cost.